


Broken Mind

by Book_love_forever



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Angst, Anxiety, Canon-Typical Violence, Child Abuse, Death, Developing Relationship, Drama, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Friendship, Gun Violence, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, Love, Memory Loss, Mental Health Issues, Murder, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Romance, Slow Burn, Stockholm Syndrome, traumatic childhood
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:14:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24753772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Book_love_forever/pseuds/Book_love_forever
Summary: He had Always loved her in a way nobody understood.He wanted her to be only his.And now it was time to finally get her.In which the BAU Team has the one thing that could stop the gruesome killings. Her.
Relationships: Aaron Hotchner/Haley Hotchner, Penelope Garcia/Derek Morgan, Spencer Reid/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 16





	1. The letter

_My dear love Elli,  
I can hardly bear being away from you for so long now. It feels like an eternity that I last heard your voice or smellt that lovely scent of yours. We are ment for each other, have always been. They tried to keep me away from you, but we both know that nobody can separate me from what is mine. They don´t understand that, because they don´t understand the way I feel for you._

_I know that you are afraid, but that is okay. You have never experienced this kind of pure love. I can you show you how it feels, because I am just like you. Nothing good ever happened to me. I know we can only be happy together, without each other life is worthless._

_To Show you how serious this is to me, I will leave you a present every second day we are separated. Don´t think they will mean anything. They are just toys to play with until we can finally be together.  
I wont take you right now, but I will always be there to protect you. _

_Forever yours, Z._


	2. 1. Chapter

>   
>  _His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly's wings.  
>  At one time he understood it no more than the butterfly did and he did not know  
>  when it was brushed or marred._  
>  -Ernest Hemingway
>
>> “Megan Parker, twenty-two, was discovered by a group of boy scouts in a forest near Sparrows Point this evening. She had been tortured and stabbed multiple times, before the UnSub strangled her to death.” Special Agent Jenifer Jareau flinched as she showed pictures of the crime scene. After all this years in the Bureau looking at such violence still made her feel sick. 
>> 
>> Even so it was just past midnight the team was complete. Of course they looked tiered and exhausted, but there was a grim determination in their eyes to find whatever monster had decided to crawl out of the shadows. “The body was placed for everybody to see and he tattooed this on her ribcage.” The next picture showed Megan on an autopsy table. Her eyes and mouth were wide open, like she was constantly screaming. A black butterfly had been tattooed on her abdomen. 
>> 
>> “Did the UnSub do this?” David Rossi asked, while looking through the file. JJ nodded, remembering what the police officer had told her on the phone earlier: “Her roommate, who reported her missing, told the police that Megan did not like any body-modification at all.” 
>> 
>> Derek Morgan, who had been on a date before his phone rang, sighed: “Maybe the UnSub is impotent and unable to maintain a normal relationship. He could have replaced sexual contact with stabbing and torturing her and in the end branded her as his property.”  
>  The technical analysist Garcia shivered in disgust and muttered “Poor Girl” under her breath. Among all the professional looking Agents she stood out with her colorful streaked hair and her cheerfully printed clothes. Penelope needed something to hold on to, when she was confronted with horrible images like this. Derek darted a soft glance at one of his best friends, making sure Garcia wasn´t to unhinged. 
>> 
>> “So this is probably about power and dominance. The UnSub could be a sexual sadist.” Hotchner looked at his team. They drove him bananas sometimes, but they were the best people he could imagine on his side when it was do or die: “Seems like we´re going to Sparrows Point. Wheels up in 30 minutes.”
>> 
>> Half an hour later the six of them were settled in the cozy and overstuffed seats of the FBI´s private jet. The aromatic yet strong scent of freshly brewed coffee filled the slightly stuffy air. Emily Prentiss, the newest addition to the BAU-team, steeped into missing person reports: “Over the last five years there were no similar killings in Sparrows Point, but in November 2000 six women went missing and were found mutilated and stabbed near Bloomington, Illinois.”. 
>> 
>> “That could be our UnSub.” Rossi assumed “He probably spent time in prison, which would explain the pause. Someone like him would never stop killing freely for so long. But why is he travelling 800 miles for his next victim?” “Actually it´s seven hundred and sixty three miles.” Reid claimed and made Derek chuckle. After all the time working with Spencer, they were used to the young doctor’s seemingly inexhaustible knowledge, but his unintentionally bold behavior still was entertaining. He blushed and hurried to mutter a “sorry” before riveting on a map of Sparrows Point.
>> 
>> “Maybe the town means something to him? Eventually he was raised there, or he just moved because of work?” JJ gave some reasons for the change of location. It was one of their habits to collect everybody’s thoughts on the case while flying to the crime scene. Derek mentioned that Sparrows Point had plenty of bars, a good place to lure young and trustful women. Megan Parker had been beautiful, which lead to the assumption that the UnSub probably was very handsome and charismatic himself after she had not shown any signs of defense wounds. When approaching on Sparrows Point´s Airport they decided to divide into groups. Hotchner and Rossi would question Megan´s roommate, while Morgan and Reid visited the coroner. In the meantime, JJ and Emily would set up their base in the local police station. 
>> 
>> “How close were you und Megan?” David asked the puffy-faced girl in front of him. Sarah Michaelson had teary eyes and her lower lip was constantly shaking. She looked like an upset toddler. “We were b-best friends! M-Megan and I did everything together and I was so happy for her to go on that date.” Sarah answered with a trembling voice, while tightly holding onto the stuffed animal on her lap. Gideon assumed that it had been a gift from Megan. 
>> 
>> Aaron Hotchner looked utterly unconfident: “Did she ever mention that something was out of the odd? Some strange guy constantly being around or a car following her everywhere?” “She never said something not to me at least. However, everyone liked Megan; there were always men around her.” For a moment, there was a jealous tone in Sarah´s voice, quickly vanishing. Hotchner focused on the framed pictures on the side table: “Is that her?” Sarah nodded explaining, that it had been taken on a hiking trip only one week ago. “Can we take it with us?”
>> 
>> “Poor girl was nearly torn apart.” Paul Lambert, the coroner, sighed, while leading Derek and Reid into the morgue. Reid tried only breathing through his mouth, the scent of death making him dizzy. There is no such an uneasy smell like the one you find in a mortuary, he thought to himself. “Look for yourself.” Paul pulled back the sheets, giving them full view of Megan Parker´s mutilated body. For a brief moment, they stood in silence, not shocked but as always pity for the victim: “Anything unusual?” “I found ammonia on her. Don´t really know where it came from. The way he prepared her body after killing the poor thing is what freaks me out.” The screaming face was indeed a bit horrifying: “He spent a lot of time with her…afterwards. The guy broke her jaw, doing this.” 
>> 
>> After they had gathered in the small but well-lit conference room, Hotchner was the first one to speak. “Sarah Michaelson is quite a bit jealous on her best friend´s popularity, but she is truly shaken by what happened. What struck me as odd was this picture.” He placed the framed memory in the middle of the table giving everybody good access. The photo showed to woman, on the left red haired Sarah and on the right Megan, dark brownish curls hiding half of her face. “The coroner found ammonia on the body. It is one of the main ingredients used in hair color. The UnSub dyed her hair blond.” Reid spoke aloud what most of them were already thinking. 
>> 
>> “He has a type, yes. It doesn´t matter how his victims look, if he just transforms them into the women they shall resemble. Which means every female in this town could be in great danger.” Emily ran her hand over the pictures: “We need to know who he wants to picture, before he gets himself another doll to play with.” The thought of this process disgusted her. Erasing this women´s identity and transforming them into somebody else. 
>> 
>> A reluctant knock on the door took them back into reality. It was a young police officer, looking like he wasn´t out if the academy for very long. His voice high pitched, not matching his muscular and macho appearance. “Sorry to interrupt, Agents. I think he has my little sister.”
>> 
>> Rossi closed his eyes, asking the question that didn´t need no answer: “Who?”  
>  Officer Thomas Shelby sobbed. 
>> 
>> “The Killer.”


	3. Second Chapther

>   
>  _“Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.”_  
>  -Mark Twain
>
>> The officer was terrified and hardly able to answer any of their questions. Later that evening the BAU team finally got a couple of heavily needed information. Brenda Shelby vanished in a highly frequented area on her way home from a sleepover. A seventeen-year-old, five feet four tall and slimly built high school student with lots of friends. She could have been Megan Parkers sister.
>> 
>> “Considering that he killed Megan two days after he kidnapped her we are running out of time.” Hotch sighed. The citizens of Sparrows Point cherished high expectations in the FBI Agents. The same with every crime they ever investigated. They were responsible for the victims, responsible to bring them back home safely. And every single time they didn´t succeed it felt like betraying the family, friends and the victims themselves. He sometimes hated his job with such deeply fulfilling passion it was an agony. Hotchner would then lay awake, hating the unknown suspect, the young women, innocent children, adolescent men and overall himself. His eyes tucked to the ceiling, his hands clutched around the fluffy blanket and his heart beating in defeat.
>> 
>> Aaron felt like crap when he walked into the police station the next morning. Derek sent him a worried look, which he stoically ignored. He was their chef, their leader. Aaron needed to be ready, even if he wasn´t. “Prentiss and Rossi you are going to the place were Brenda was last seen. Morgan and I have a look at the crime scene. Reid, you try creating a geographical profile.” Reid was already busy with a very detailed map of their surroundings, while the rest of them headed to the SUV´s. All of them had a ticking sound in their mind, Brenda´s time that was about to run out. 
>> 
>> “If I was an UnSub, why would I choose this particular area?” Rossi looked at the variety of shops and café´s all along the last street Brenda Shelby had walked before her disappearance. Emily Prentiss shrugged: “I don´t know. This is honestly the worst place to snatch a person. People everywhere, most of the shops are probably opened at this time of the day.” “But that’s it. If he´s clever enough, he will take her in front of a whole city, mocking them.” David suggested, while walking up and down the sidewalk. “If he blends in he can talk to her, maybe it even looks like they are related. Nobody thinks of it twice, when siblings are arguing.” People walked by but nobody seemed interested in the two strangers awkwardly standing in front of a hairdresser. They were an unlikely couple, but Sparrows Point was a sophisticated town. 
>> 
>> Hotchner could feel Derek´s eyes on him. He could sense the question that Morgan desperately wanted to ask him. That is what working with profilers was like. They sometimes knew you were in a mood before you figured it out yourself, just by making your cup of coffee different from usual. “What?” He addressed his partners piercing expression. His tone was harsher than intended, but he knew Derek would understand. They all did. “I just feel like you have something on your mind, that´s all. And I want you to know whatever it is, that we´ll listen to you.” Derek said with a promising tone. They were more than just a team they were family. Hotch nodded and felt a bit of relief, knowing there were people who cared about him. 
>> 
>> From time to time, the line, which separated the work from his private life, blurred. Hotchner knew that his wife Haley therefore hated his job and the dozens of hours he spent in other states chasing after criminals instead of chasing after his son Jack. However, somebody needed to do it and he had always felt responsible for the injustice in this world.  
>  They couldn´t miss the crime scene, when the two FBI agents arrived. The body dumped just next to a small hiking path. “There is hardly any blood. Megan died somewhere else and the UnSub brought her here for a special reason.” Hotchner mentioned, while they watched a group of joggers pass them. “On one hand he could have chosen this place because he wants to see her, maybe he walks by occasionally. Alternatively, he placed her here for somebody else. In this case we need to find out who that person is.” Derek added while scanning the area, looking for anything unusual, but there weren´t any footprints or cigarette stubs. He could smell the earthy and warm wooden scent of the forest. As a kid growing up in Chicago there hadn´t been much nature around and he enjoyed working in the more rural regions ever since. 
>> 
>> With the rest if his team away Spencer had the silence he sometimes needed to provide proper work. His mind worked best under high pressure, but he needed the quiet and loneliness to relax. In his head there was a highway filled with information that rushed around like atoms. He had headaches since he was little, every now and again it was too much for his synapses to bear and he had to take a break from thinking. Other people called him a “genius” but he never got along with that word, mostly because in his opinion intelligence wasn´t measurable. He had once met a girl who could recite every line from every movie she had ever watched, but couldn´t keep a sentence in mind she read just a few minutes ago. Artists, musicians and authors were in their own way as genius as mathematicians, physicist or philosophers. His head rested in his palm Spencer studied the map in front of him. Little red flags marked the places of Megan´s and Brenda´s last known whereabouts, their homes and the crime scene. Reid tried to find a pattern and the UnSub´s comfort zone. 
>> 
>> “I am so hungry; I would literally eat that dead leave Reid´s chewing on!” Derek noisily complained, while making notes on the crime scene. Reid groaned exhausted: “Kale contains a variety of mineral nutrients and vitamins. This particular sort of cabbage has vitamin c, calcium and phosphor in it which is really important to maintain healthy bones!” The rest of the team smiled silently at Reid´s indignantly tone. For fun, Emily had bought some dried kale chips in a fancy vegan store but to her surprise, Spencer had inhaled them quickly while making sounds of enjoyment. Morgan looked at his watch. It wasn´t even noon meaning quitting time was still in the future. 
>> 
>> The coffee tasted terrible and the doughnuts a young intern had brought them were dry and filled with a chunky cream that felt like saw dust in Rossi´s mouth. He wished himself back to Virginia and into the fabulous Italian restaurant, which he frequently visited. The Italian-American would give everything for a good wine and homemade pasta, but there was a murderer to be imprisoned. “What so you think what kind of person are we looking for?” He leaned back in his chair and tried to put the pieces of information together. Hotchner set aside the steaming hot cup of coffee, the sixth one duo to his lack of sleep: “Sexual sadist, the torture pleasures him. He likes to dump the bodies in plain sight; the UnSub wants people to find them. As Derek and I suspected he maybe drops them for a particular person to discover.” “The UnSub is a narcissist, grabbing its prey from public places, showing off how intelligent he is.” Emily added while pointing on the map. Derek picked up the pictures taken in the morgue: “He transforms them into something new, like a butterfly in its metamorphosis. If there is a special woman who he wants to reassemble, we need to find out who she is. She might have triggered the stressor.” 
>> 
>> Two hours later, they left the room, graving for their beds. The night was balmy and felt like summer. “Excuse me?” A high, clear voice pierced through the darkness. Reid and Morgan who were behind the others turned around just to face a young woman. Reid gasped, as he looked up and down on her realizing every detail. Her hair was a silvery tone of blond, looking like moonlight had graced it. Her lips were full and a natural rosé color. “My name is Beck.” She said softly, a timid look in her bright green eyes. Morgan had never seen somebody with such pale skin, the woman in front of him was unnatural beautiful. She was small, remembering him of a fairy like creature. “What is this about?” Hotchner appeared behind them suspiciously eying Elizabeth. She reached out her small hand, a letter tugged tightly in it. She shivered. 
>> 
>> “I think you might want to have a look at this.”


End file.
